Paul Stanley is not the first rock star to survive a dysfunctional family, a troubled youth and
years of feeling like an outcast. Few, though can reflect with as much triumph as Stanley can.

The Kiss singer is reflecting often these days.

His revealing autobiography,
Face the Music: A Life Exposed (Harper One), is due out on Tuesday, just as Kiss is about
to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — after 14 years of eligibility and ample fan
lobbying.

The group, which has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, is also marking the 40th
anniversary of its first two albums via a summer tour with Def Leppard and with special
releases.

All that serves to remind the 62-year-old New York native, born Stanley Eisen, that he has come
a long way with his Starchild rock-god persona.

“You know, everyone has struggles,” he said by phone from his Los Angeles home. “I guess my book
is about never quitting and never losing sight of where you’re going.”

Stanley’s primary misfortune: He was born deaf in his right ear and with microtia, an outer-ear
deformity that, when he was young, made him a target for bullies.

He was able to hide the deformity as he got older by growing his hair long but didn’t speak
freely about the issue until he was preparing to publish
Face the Music.

“It was too painful,” said Stanley, who had ear-reconstruction surgery as an adult and has
become active with About Face, a group that assists people with facial abnormalities. “You can only
reveal things and you can only deal with things when you’re ready to.

“Luckily, as an adult, I found different ways to resolve some of those issues and to find some
surgical relief.”

The experience helped persuade Stanley to publish his story — something he hadn’t expected to
do, even after original Kiss band mates Peter Criss, Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons published
memoirs.

“I had sworn for, literally, decades not to write an autobiography,” said Stanley, who did
co-write the 2013 retrospective
Nothin’ To Lose: The Making of Kiss (1972-75).

“I always go back to George Orwell, who said that the autobiography is the most outrageous form
of fiction. And I would say . . . that 95 percent of the autobiographies by any of my
contemporaries would be better suited on a roll of soft paper, so at least you could use it for
something.”

He changed his mind after realizing that his story might inspire other people. “And . . . I
wanted something that my children could read when they got older to understand what it took for me
to succeed.” .

In
Face the Music, Stanley details his upbringing in New York and writes candidly about his
time in Kiss.

The negative includes Criss’ and Frehley’s problems with substance abuse, interpersonal
conflicts within the band and Stanley’s siblinglike rivalry with Simmons. Stanley felt abandoned by
Simmons during the 1980s when Simmons moved on to pursue acting and produce other artists.

“There have been times when I’ve been very angry and resentful — and I’m not saying momentarily;
I’m saying for long periods of time,” said Stanley, a twice-married father of four whose own
pursuits have included painting and a 1999 stint playing the lead in a Toronto production of
The Phantom of the Opera.

“But time is the ultimate judge, and the fact that we’ve been together at this point for, my
gosh, 44 years almost, says volumes. We are brothers, and I know that in a pinch I can count on
him, and he knows the same.”

After a 14-year wait for election to the rock hall, Kiss has met a fresh controversy: The hall
chose to induct only the four original band members — omitting the six later members, most notably
now-deceased drummer Eric Carr and current members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer.

Miffed at the snub to their current colleagues, and noting that other inducted groups haven’t
been limited to their original members, Simmons and Stanley have refused to perform at the
induction ceremony next week in New York.

As far as he’s concerned, Stanley said, the slight only underscores the hall’s reluctance to
include Kiss.

“That it’s 14 years on and we’re (only now) getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a
clear indication that the people who hide behind that moniker don’t like us,” he said. “But it
reached a point where it was so absurd and ludicrous that they caved.”